Welcome Back, Belvedere Community!

Fairfax County Public Schools sent this bulletin at 08/04/2025 12:08 PM EDT

August 4, 2025

Dear Belvedere Family:

Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year! We hope you are enjoying summer and are looking forward to the new school year. We are excited to welcome back our students and to begin a new year of learning.

We highly encourage you to get involved in our school community by taking advantage of school and classroom volunteer opportunities and by joining the Parent Teacher Association. When you visit us for Open House (see schedule below) teachers will have volunteer sign-up sheets, and we encourage you to help us strengthen our Belvedere family/community partnership.  

This year we welcome a few new staff members to the Belvedere family. Additionally, we have made some internal changes to our staffing.  See table below:

Preschool Instructional Assistant:

  • Alexis Cabrales
  • Beatriz Reyes
  • Pamela Henao Cabel

Kindergarten Instructional Assistant: 

  • Cheryl Dean Jones

Librarian:

  • Rachel Zamudio

Third Grade Teachers:

  • Wendy Welch (moving from 2nd to 3rd)
  • Sara Eckert

Fifth Grade Teacher:

  • Amanda Rose

Fourth Grade Teachers:

  • Katie Veltri (moving from 3rd to 4th)
  • Hillary Mauser
  • Mary Beth Dillane (moving from math resource teacher to 4th grade classroom)

Special Education Instructional Assistants:

  • Rebecca Saunders
  • Jana Thomas

Art Teacher:

  • Fran Oviedo (Part time)

SBTS

  • Sam Schaefer (moving from Special Education teacher)

Special Education Teacher:

  • Whitney Pace (Part time)

Coaches

  • Shea Hopkins- Literacy
  • Cait Fiocchi- MTSS/Data 

Office Assistant

  • Amalia Archer

We look forward to seeing you during our Open House. This will be an opportunity for you and your child to see the classroom, greet the teacher, and drop off supplies.  Open House schedule is as follows:

  • First through Fifth grade families’ Open House will take place on Thursday, August 14, from 2:00-4:00 p.m.  
  • FCPS Preschool Families will attend Open House on Thursday, August 21 from 2:00-3:00p.m.
  • During our Open House please visit the cafeteria for our Resource Fair.

Kindergarten students and their parents will be meeting individually with their teachers before school begins.  If you have a kindergarten child, an invitation to meet the teacher has been mailed to your home. We kindly request that you adhere to your assigned meeting time and contact the school should a change be needed.

Preschool Special Education and Preschool Autism Classes (PAC) will contact each family to schedule a time to meet.

We are here to support you and will be available to you by phone, email and in person should you need to speak with us. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

Cecilia Vanderhye, Principal

Kelly Cabezas, Assistant Principal

Tara Boone, Assistant Principal